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Avg: 4.0 (71 ratings)
- Date Released: January 1, 1970
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: British Invasion
- Label: Snapper Classics / The Orchard
Rolling Stone's favourite album of 1970.
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We Say...
Bright, new Rolling Stone magazine declared Parachute the LP of the year in 1970 — yet it totally bombed in America while soaring to, well, Number 43 in UK. Still, following Emotions and S.F. Sorrow, it again asserts their instinct for creatively reworking lustrous contemporary influences.
Take the title track. Concluding the “concept” theme of urban degeneration, it describes a forlorn mass retreat from the city to the seashore via sweet Beach Boys-emulating harmonies — a powerful contrast between sound and subject which evokes a paradise lost of wasted human potential.
Musically, the whole album is alive with such imaginative dynamics; pastoral acoustic guitars, harmonies, flutes and Phil May’s gentle lead vocals dream away until ferocious reality comes growling and yowling in from the blues-hoarse Wally Allen and intense new member Vic Unitt’s pre-metallic guitar.
So, you might allow Rolling Stone was right...until you listen to the lyrics. Despite some adroit phrasemaking, the “town bad, country good” equation and the love story intended to symbolise this moral gulf now seem quaint, even silly. (Plus, a couple of songs — "The Good Mr. Square" and "Miss Fay Regrets" — are irrelevant, though strong.)
But if the words label Parachute “period piece,” the sounds durably recall the band’s sincerity and artistic fire. -
They Say...
If S.F. Sorrow is the Pretty Things' Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, and Yellow Submarine wrapped in one, then Parachute is their more succinct White Album and Abbey Road. It's not just a time line comparison. The Pretties made this fascinating LP in the same studio as the Fab Four, London's Abbey Road, with Beatles engineer Norman Smith producing. "The Good Mr. Square" replicates the three-part harmony the Beatles were so proud of on "Because." Two songs later, the group assembles a brief, interconnected three-song suite like the famous ones on side two of Abbey Road. Bassist Wally Allen's vocals on tracks such as "Sickle Clowns" have the same throaty, mad anguish that John Lennon exhibited on "Yer Blues" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." If S.F. Sorrow is hard rock grandeur, then Parachute is its more bitter twist, the dream dying and the witching hour upon us. Yet, if this isn't as much of a triumph, the creative neurons are still firing throughout a multi-varied, cohesive LP. Like S.F. Sorrow, it's a surprisingly palatable concept LP. This time the topic is a generation caught between the conflicting calls of (rural) peace, love, and boredom, and (urban) sophistication, sex, and squalor in a harsh world. Somehow the departure of the band's main creative force, Dick Taylor, didn't diminish the writing and inspired variety. Allen stepped up big time into the collaborator role with singer Phil May. The harmonies remain a strong point on an otherwise rock-inclined record, and the nasty edge of perfectly balanced bombast in the best songs have been a lost art ever since -- it's not hard to see why Rolling Stone rated Parachute the best LP of 1970. (There are 18 minutes of good stuff tacked on the Snapper edition, taken from singles.)
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Rolling Stone
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| 01. |  |
Scene One |
1:50 |
|
| 02. | |
The Good Mr. Square |
1:26 |
|
| 03. | |
She Was Tall, She Was High |
1:35 |
|
| 04. | |
In The Square |
1:55 |
|
| 05. | |
The Letter |
1:38 |
|
| 06. | |
Rain |
2:28 |
|
| 07. | |
Miss Fay Regrets |
3:27 |
|
| 08. | |
Cries From The Midnight Circus |
6:28 |
|
| 09. | |
Grass |
4:20 |
|
| 10. | |
Sickle Clowns |
6:36 |
|
| 11. | |
She's A Lover |
3:32 |
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| 12. | |
What's The Use |
1:45 |
|
| 13. | |
Parachute |
3:52 |
|
| 14. | |
Blue Serge Blues |
3:54 |
|
| 15. | |
October 26 |
4:56 |
|
| 16. | |
Cold Stone |
3:11 |
|
| 17. | |
Stone-Hearted Mama |
3:29 |
|
| 18. | |
Summer Time |
4:28 |
|
| 19. | |
Circus Mind |
2:00 |
|
19 Total Tracks, 62:50 Total Length
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Credits
- Phil May - Bass // Phil May - Guitar // Phil May - Vocals // Dick Taylor - Bass // Dick Taylor - Guitar // Dick Taylor - Vocals // Tony Clark - Engineer // John Povey - Percussion // John Povey - Vocals // Norman Smith - Producer // Victor Unitt - ? // Wally Allen Waller - Bass // Wally Allen Waller - Vocals // Skip Alan - Drums // Skip Alan - Vocals // Mike Stax - Liner Notes // Andrew Pearce - Remastering // Mark St. John - Remastering // Nick Webb - Assistant Engineer
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